Mining, construction, and other large scale excavating operations require fleets of digging, loading, and hauling machines to remove and transport excavated material such as ore and overburden from an area of excavation to a processing location. For such an operation to be profitable, the fleet of machines must be productively and efficiently operated. Many factors can influence productivity and efficiency at a worksite including, among other things, site conditions (e.g., rain, snow, ground moisture levels, material composition, visibility, terrain contour, road conditions, etc.) and machine conditions (e.g., age, state of disrepair, malfunction, fuel grade in use, payload, tire pressure, transmission shift points, fuel limits, steering limits, etc.). When a machine is manufactured, it is conservatively configured for operation under a particular set of theoretical conditions and cannot be reconfigured easily after being commissioned to match actual conditions found at different worksites.
One attempt to improve worksite productivity and efficiency is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0198422 (the '422 publication) by Vik et al. published on Aug. 6, 2009. In the '422 publication, Vik et al. discloses a worksite management system having a plurality of machines, a plurality of data acquisition modules configured to monitor performance of each of the machines, and a controller in communication with the data acquisition modules. The controller is configured to collect machine performance data from the data acquisition modules, and detect a performance irregularity based on the collected machine performance data. The controller is further configured to analyze the collected machine performance data, and determine which of a machine condition, an operator condition, and a site condition is the predominant cause of the performance irregularity based on the comparison.
Although the system of the '422 publication may help to identify a cause of a performance irregularity, it may do little to correct the performance irregularity or reduce the likelihood of future performance irregularities. Accordingly, the system of the '422 publication, alone, may be insufficient to improve worksite productivity and efficiency.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.